ISTANBUL -- A gunman suspected of killing 39 people during a New Year's Eve attack on an Istanbul nightclub has been caught in a police operation, Turkish media reports said early today.
The main suspect in the attack was taken alive, along with several other individuals after a police operation in Esenyurt, on the European side of the Turkish metropolis Istanbul, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The private NTV television reported that the suspect had been staying in the house belonging to a friend from Kyrgyzstan.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the nightclub massacre, saying the attack in the first hours of Jan. 1 was in reprisal for Turkish military operations in northern Syria. Police believe the man sprayed bullets inside the waterfront Reina nightclub, killing mostly foreigners and wounding dozens more in an attack. The man identified as the suspect had been on the run since the attack.
Hurriyet newspaper and other media have identified the gunman as Abdulkadir Masharipov, an Uzbekistan national. The suspect was to undergo medical checks before being taken to police headquarters for questioning, the paper said in its online edition.
Dogan news agency published what it said was the first image of the attacker. It showed a bruised, black-haired man in a grey, bloodied shirt being held by his neck. Private NTV television said the gunman had resisted arrest.
NTV reported that the gunman's Kyrgyz friend and three other people also were detained. His 4-year-old child, who was with him at the home, was taken into protective custody.
The television channel said police established the gunman's whereabouts four or five days ago, but delayed the raid so they could monitor his movements and contacts.
The state-run Anadolu Agency also reported the arrest and identified the gunman, only with a slightly different spelling of his first name, Abdulgadir. It said a Kyrgyz man and three women were detained with him.
Anadolu said the suspects were being taken to Istanbul's main police headquarters for questioning. Police were carrying out raids on other suspected Islamic State group cells, the news agency said without providing details
Earlier in the day, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said the Reina nightclub attack had been carried out professionally with the help of an intelligence organization, a claim he had made in the first days after the attack. He did not name the organization suspected of being involved.
Hundreds of people were gathered at the Reina nightclub to celebrate the end of a tumultuous 2016 only to become the first victims of 2017. The gunman shot a police officer and a civilian outside the club, then stormed the premises.
Authorities have arrested about three dozen people around the country since the attack on the club which took place in the hours after revelers rang in the new year.
The arrest comes days after the manhunt led police to a house in which authorities found $150,000 during a raid, Hurriyet and other Turkish media reported.
Police on Friday also arrested two foreign nationals from the Uighur ethnic group accused of being members of a terrorist organization and assisting in 39 counts of murder, according to Anadolu.
Information for this article was contributed by Ayse Wieting and Suzan Fraser of the Associated Press and by Shabtai Gold of Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
A Section on 01/17/2017